Jury Asks To Rehear Fbi Tapes Referring To Grasso's Murder -

July 30, 1991|By EDMUND MAHONY; Courant Staff Writer

Jurors weighing racketeering charges against eight members and associates of the Patriarca crime family concluded a seventh day of deliberations Monday without reaching a verdict, and continued to concentrate on an alleged conspiracy to murder family underboss William "The Wild Guy" Grasso.

The jury asked to rehear two conversations the FBI secretly recorded in 1989. Parts of the conversations, in the government's view, refer obliquely to the conspiracy leading to Grasso's murder on June 13, 1989. On Monday, the jurors asked to hear one of the conversations twice.

Four of the men on trial are accused of conspiring to murder Grasso in May and June of 1989. The evidence against them comes largely from John F. "Sonny" Castagna and his son Jack Johns, two mob associates from Hartford who agreed to become cooperating prosecution witnesses. As part of their agreements, the two admitted to participating in Grasso's murder.

The other men on trial, including reputed family boss Nicholas Bianco of Providence, are accused of a variety of racketeering offenses.

The jury first heard a recording of a conversation between Castagna and East Hartford mob soldier Louis Failla. It was recorded June 21, 1989 over a microphone hidden in Failla's Cadillac. During the conversation, the men refer to John "Fast Jack" Farrell of Manchester, a mob mechanic, or card and dice sharp.

Among other things, Failla and Castagna discuss how Farrell figured out that there was a plot to kill Grasso because Failla -- who despised Grasso -- left town in advance of the assassination. 57 "Geez," Castagna said. "Jack put it together when you took off for New York."

"Yeah," Failla said, "but he ain't saying nothing."

Moments later, Failla continued: "Triple sharp, streetwise guy. He knows we know about this in advance. Now he knows. For me to go away, something's wrong, right? I don't go away for three or four days, never."

The jurors also asked to hear a recording made of a conversation between Johns and Louis Pugliano of West Springfield, one of the four men accused of plotting and carrying out Grasso's

murder.

The conversation was recorded on Aug. 16, 1990, at a time when Johns' decision to become a cooperating witness was only weeks old and remained a closely held secret among a small number of prosecutors and FBI agents.

Because prosecutors and FBI agents were not satisfied with an answer Johns gave during a lie-detector interview, they equipped him with a body microphone and directed him to arrange a meeting with Pugliano. Johns had only recently been released on bail, after his arrest in March 1990 on racketeering charges. At the time of his meeting with Pugliano, no one had been charged with Grasso's murder.

Among other things, Johns steers the conversation to Gaetano Milano -- another defendant who was later charged with being the triggerman in the Grasso murder -- and Milano's lawyer, F. Mac Buckley, a former federal prosecutor turned defense attorney.

Johns and Castagna talked about rumors that Milano was going to make a deal with federal prosecutors by implicating Grasso's murderers. They also discussed the possibility that Buckley was going to "double-door" the defendants by gaining their confidence and then revealing Grasso's murderer to the government.

There are two versions of the conversation between Johns and Pugliano. One is contained in a transcription made by prosecutors and the other, in a defense transcription. The two are largely identical.

On Monday, the jury first listened to the recording, following along with the government transcription. Immediately afterward, the jurors heard the recording a second time while reading the defense transcription.

Only minutes after resuming their deliberations, the jurors asked to again hear the tape while reading the government transcription for a second time.

Deliberations are scheduled to resume this morning in U.S. District Court in Hartford.